Essay on Gothic Architecture in Europe

The research paper, shall be concerned with discussion Gothic architecture in Europe-namely England, France, Germany, and Italy starting from 12th to the 16th Centuries. Architecture was the most original and lasting form of art during the Gothic Period, which lasted for four centuries starting from the mid 12th century. The impetus for this architecture was the Roman Catholic Church, which sought to portray their houses of worship as something which transcended the realm of mankind. It is interesting to note that many of the Northern European areas were predominately pagan, and only recently brought into the Church. The imagery provided by Gothic structural design was something these peoples could more readily understand, as they used symbols in their pagan worship on a regular basis. These cathedrals were meant to inspire awe and reverence to those that entered them, and for the average person from the Gothic Period-these structures produced an intense experience.
Evolved from Romanesque, Gothic was a more eclectic application of architecture. The decline and eventual fall of the Roman Empire had left a void in Western Europe, and for the first 500 years after the fall, there was anarchy and chaos. This period is most often referred to as the “Dark Ages” as indeed they were. Around 1100 AD, the Catholic Church began to spread in Western Europe. A Roman Empire remnant, the Catholic Church wove itself into almost every aspect of Western European Society. At its apex, the Pope’s authority super-ceded the monarchies and the Church began to align power in order to manage Western European Civilization using religion as its codex. The Church established the university system as well as apprenticeships (Athena Review, 200...

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...48 was also in Cologne. Other include Naumburg Cathedral which has a nave of 1200 and Gelnhausen and Munster-Maifeld which begun in 1250. All these churches had some character like those which were in France. They were seen as the work of 12th century there is a need to look for another class to fill the gap between the time and completion of the cathedral in Cologne in the year 1270.
“1275- The pointed arch, when adopted in Germany, was in all probability from France, as the general aspect of German churches of pointed Architecture seems to prove. The greatest Gothic cathedral of Germany, Cologne Cathedral, was not commenced till about the year 1275 and its choir was probably completed during the quarter of the fourteenth century. The largest in Europe, is also one of the grandest efforts of Gothic architecture in Europe.” Architecture, Gothic and Renaissance.

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